Omie Kalani, 12 others booked for kidnapping, extortion

Thursday, December 06, 2018

By Narendra Gupta

The Kolsewadi police have registered a case against 12 people including TOK (Team Omie Kalani) president and Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation mayor Pancham Kalani's husband Omie Kalani for kidnapping and extortion of a Kalyan based garment businessman on Tuesday.

The Police said, the complainant who has been identified as Anil Kanjani (37) and runs a wholesale garment business in Kalyan, has alleged stated in his police complaint that he was kidnapped and threatened to pay Rs 50 lakh to a Ahmedabad based businessman to whom he owed money.

The victim had some old dues pending with the Ahmedabad based businessman Nilesh. Suresh Lalwani who knows Nilesh introduced Kanjani to Nilesh for a business proposal. On Sunday, Lalwani threatened the victim to return Nilesh's dues and forcefully picked him out from his residence in Kalyan and took him to the Mumbai Airport to meet Nilesh who had landed from an Ahmedabad-based flight.

Kanjani alleged that duo threatened and abused him. They then took him to a hotel in Ulhasnagar, where TOK members including Santosh Pandey, Sunny Telkar, Kamlesh Nikam, Vijay Shinde, Goodu Rai, Vicky Panjabi and some others threatened him and brandished knives and revolvers asking him to pay up Nilesh within two to three days. Later, the victim alleged, that he was forcefully taken to Seema International hotel, where he was confined to a room and beaten up.

Further, Kanjani alleged that after being held captive for a day, on Monday he was forcefully taken to meet Omie Kalani at his bunglow to clear the Ahmedabad-based debtor payments. Luckily, the victim got a chance to speak to his uncle Rajkumar Aajwani and informed him about his misfortune, after which, Kanjani alleged that he was not taken to Kalani's bungalow, but was left near his house with a warning to return Nilesh's money.

Omie Kalani is the son of Ulhasnagar ex-MLA Pappu Kalani, who is currently in jail. Omie mother Jyoti Kalani is the sitting MLA and his wife Pancham Kalani is the Mayor of Ulhasnagar Municipal corporation. Kalani, the president of Team Omie Kalani (TOK) party which is in alliance with the BJP in the Ulhasnagar civic body

Omie Kalani told The ADC reporter that he is being deliberately falsely implicated in the case by the police under pressure from his political opponents. “We have given a letter to the DCP office, demanding a fair enquiry in the case. The role of police in this case is suspicious as they have added my name in accused lists with pen in last line of the FIR copy while all the other's names are computerised printed. This shows the police has added my name without properly probing the matter.”

Assistant police inspector S V Pansare from Kolsewadi police station said, “We have registered a case and are probing the case. We have not arrested any one yet. Based on the victim's complaint we filed a case against 12 people including Omie Kalani.”

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